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We describe ongoing development for The Homer Multitext focusing on the interlocking challenges of automated analysis of diplomatic manuscript transcriptions. With the goal of lexical and morphological analysis of prose and poetry texts, and metrical analysis of poetic texts (and quotations thereof), we face the challenge of working generically across languages and across multiple possible orthographies in each language. In the case of Greek, our working dataset includes Greek following the conventions of Attica before 404 BCE, the conventions of "standard" literary polytonic Greek, and the particular conventions found in Byzantine codex manuscripts of Greek epic poetry with accompanying commentary. The latest work involves re-implementing existing CITE Architecture libraries in the Julia language, with documentation in the form of runnable code notebooks using the Pluto.jl framework. The Homer Multitext has been a work in progress for two decades. Because of the project's emphasis on simple data formats (plain text, very simple XML, tabular lists), our data remain valid even as we gain understanding of the challenges posed by our source-material, particularly the 10th and 11th Century manuscripts of Greek epic poetry with accompanying ancient commentary that, within themselves, represent over a thousand years of linguistic evolution. The work outlined here represents the latest shift in our development tools, a flexibility likewise made possible by the separation of concerns that has been a central value in the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to assess whether undergraduate students would correctly follow recombined instructions after two kinds of stimulus pairing procedures with overlapping compound stimuli, and to compare these results with a matching-to-sample procedure. The investigated procedures may be analogous to situations where the listener would learn to comprehend sentences with the syntax "verb + object." Participants were assigned to three groups that differed regarding the type of training between stimuli that overlapped in a stepwise manner: matching-to-sample (MTS), stimulus pairing (SP), and cued multiple stimulus pairing (CMSP). Relations between pseudophrases (A) and videos of actions related to objects (B), and between pseudophrases (A) and compound abstract symbols (C) were trained in each group (AB and AC training). Performance was tested in selection tasks: stimulus equivalence (BC/CB) and recombined conditional discriminations (AB-r/AC-r); and execution tasks: trained (AD/CD) and recombined (AD-r/CD-r) instruction-following. In the MTS control group, participants had to choose a comparison stimulus according to the sample, in a conditional discrimination task. In the SP condition, participants were asked to observe stimuli that were analogous to the sample and correct comparison of the MTS condition, displayed in sequence in a stimulus pairing task, presented without reinforcement or required selection responses. The CMSP condition used a procedure similar to SP, except S+ were signaled by a hand icon, and S- analogues were presented in the pairing trial. MTS and SP conditions produced similar performances in BC/CB, AB-r/AC-r, AD/CD and AD-r/CD-r testing, whereas CMSP yielded worse results than both. Results indicate that recombined instruction-following may be a product of stimulus pairing procedures, which does not require or reinforce selection responses (SP), even when more than one stimulus is displayed in the pairing situation (CMSP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common framing has it that any adequate treatment of quotation has to abandon one of the following three principles: (i) The quoted expression is a syntactic constituent of the quote phrase; (ii) If two expressions are derived by applying the same syntactic rule to a sequence of synonymous expressions, then they are synonymous; (iii) The language contains synonymous but distinct expressions. In the following, a formal syntax and semantics will be provided for a quotational language which adheres to all three principles. The point here is not merely to provide a "possibility proof", but to reveal the hard constraints on the theory of quotation, and to highlight certain assumptions at the syntax/semantics/post-semantics interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the comprehension of prosodically and syntactically marked focus by 5- to 8-year-old Cantonese-speaking children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children listened to question-answer dialogues while looking at pictures depicting the scenarios, and judged whether the answers were correct responses to the questions. The results showed that children with ASD exhibited typically developing (TD)-like performance in the use of syntactic cues to understand focus, although they were significantly slower than their TD peers. However, children with ASD had more difficulties than their TD peers in utilizing prosodic cues in focus comprehension. These findings suggest that the comprehension difficulties found in children with ASD are domain-selective, and children with ASD are sensitive to language-specific focus marking strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bird song is one of the most advanced communication systems. The complex syntactic organization of a song, along with its unique dual nature that combines genetic inheritance and vocal training is often considered in the modern literature as a feature that brings it closer to human speech or written text. The study of patterns in the construction of sequences of discrete signals in the song of birds is currently a rapidly developing field of bioacoustics. In this review, we consider the results of research on the main modes of syntactic organization of a song, such as the volume of individual repertoires, the measure of ordering the performance of vocal components of a song (linear or combinatorial syntax), the ways to group vocal components of different levels of the song organization (notes, phrases, song types) in compositions and programs, the presence of branching and convergence points in signal sequences, and hidden relations between vocal components in their sequences. In conclusion, we consider the entire diversity of syntactic models described to date and provide examples of their implementation in the song of different bird species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to deficits in pragmatics, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have weaknesses in complex syntax and working memory (WM). These two deficits may be closely related. Previous work investigated the effects of WM training in developmental language disorders and showed significant improvement in both WM and syntax. The current study tests the impact of 12 h of WM training across 8 weeks in 30 children with ASD, aged 5 to 11. Results showed direct improvements on untrained WM tasks, as well as transfer effects to syntax and processing speed. Stronger WM led to better syntactic abilities. While they must be replicated, these exciting results provide impetus for further studies of WM interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stemmer’s theory of language acquisition is an empiricist account of listener behavior learning based on ostensive processes similar to Pavlovian conditioning procedures. Even though it is not a strictly radical behaviorist theory, its formulation at the level of relations between stimuli and overt performance makes it suitable as a candidate to interpret recent experimental findings that use stimulus pairing procedures to investigate the learning of listener behavior. Stemmer describes stages that range from learning the meanings of words and complex sentences to processes that may be involved in learning new word meanings through their relations with other known words within verbal stimuli. Empirical evidences and limitations of the theory are described, and the case is made that this theory could be the source of a productive research program towards expanding behavior analytic accounts of listener behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many researchers jointly model multiple linguistic tasks (e.g., joint modeling of named entity recognition and named entity classification and joint modeling of syntactic parsing and semantic parsing) with an implicit assumption that these individual tasks can enhance each other via the joint modeling. Before conducting research on jointly modeling multiple tasks, however, such researchers hardly examine whether such assumption is true or not. In this paper, we empirically examine whether named entity classification improves the performance of named entity recognition as an empirical case of examining whether semantics improves the performance of a syntactic task. To this end, we firstly specify the way to determine whether a linguistic task is a syntactic task or a semantic task according to both syntactic theory and semantic theory. After that, we design and conduct extensive experiments on two well-known benchmark datasets using three representative yet diverse state-of-the-art models. Experimental results demonstrate that named entity recognition does not lie at the semantic level and is not a semantic task; instead, it is a syntactic task and that the joint modeling of named entity recognition and classification does not improve the performance of named entity recognition. Experimental results also demonstrate that traditional handcrafted feature models can achieve state-of-the-art performance in comparison with the auto-learned feature model on named entity recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-known problem for head-final languages is diagnosing rightward head movement. For Germanic OV-languages such as German and Dutch, it has been claimed that there is no evidence for rightward movement of the verb and arguments have been made against such movement. This paper aims to reassess this claim with a focus on German and ultimately argue in favour of head movement to the right. First, I show that the objections raised by Haider against movement to rightward head positions do not provide conclusive evidence against rightward verb movement. Then, I aim to provide arguments in support of rightward verb movement, in particular based on particle verbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of corticostriatal circuits in language functions is unclear. In this review, we consider evidence from language learning, syntax, and controlled language production and comprehension tasks that implicate various corticostriatal circuits. Converging evidence from neuroimaging in healthy individuals, studies in populations with subcortical dysfunction, pharmacological studies, and brain stimulation suggests a domain-general regulatory role of corticostriatal systems in language operations. The role of corticostriatal systems in language operations identified in this review is likely to reflect a broader function of the striatum in responding to uncertainty and conflict which demands selection, sequencing, and cognitive control. We argue that this role is dynamic and varies depending on the degree and form of cognitive control required, which in turn will recruit particular corticostriatal circuits and components organised in a cognitive hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heyday of discussions initiated by Searle's claim that computers have syntax, but no semantics has now past, yet philosophers and scientists still tend to frame their views on artificial intelligence in terms of syntax and semantics. In this paper I do not intend to take part in these discussions; my aim is more fundamental, viz. to ask what claims about syntax and semantics in this context can mean in the first place. And I argue that their sense is so unclear that that their ability to act as markers within any disputes on artificial intelligence is severely compromised; and hence that their employment brings us nothing more than an illusion of explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short text similarity measurement methods play an important role in many applications within natural language processing. This paper reviews the research literature on short text similarity (STS) measurement method with the aim to (i) classify and give a broad overview of existing techniques; (ii) find out its strengths and weaknesses in terms of the domain the independence, language independence, requirement of semantic knowledge, corpus and training data, ability to identify semantic meaning, word order similarity and polysemy; and (iii) identify semantic knowledge and corpus resource that can be utilized for the STS measurement methods. Furthermore, our study also considers various issues such as the difference between the various text similarity methods and the difference between semantic knowledge sources and corpora for text similarity. Although there are a few review papers in this area, they focus mostly only on one/two existing techniques. Furthermore, existing review papers do not cover recent research. To the best of our knowledge, this is a comprehensive systematic literature review on this topic. The findings of this research can be as follows: It identified four semantic knowledge and eight corpus resources as external resources that can be classified into general-purpose and domain-specific. Furthermore, the existing techniques can be classified into string-based, corpus-based, knowledge-based and hybrid-based. Moreover, expert researchers can utilize this review as a benchmark as well as reference to the limitations of current techniques. The paper also identifies the open issues that can be considered as feasible opportunities for future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It remains to be investigated whether syntax-related mismatch activity would be evoked in event-related optical signals by syntactic violations that deviate from our language knowledge and expectations. In the current study, we have employed fast optical neuroimaging with a frequency-domain oximeter to examine whether syntactic violations of English bare infinitives in the non-finite complement clause would trigger syntax-related mismatch effects. Recorded sentences of bare or full infinitive structures (without or with the 'to' infinitival marker) with syntactically correct or incorrect versions and non-syntactic lexical items (verbs) were presented to native speakers of English (n = 8) during silent movie viewing as a passive oddball task. The analysis of source strength (i.e., minimum norm current amplitudes) revealed that the syntactic category violations of bare object infinitives led to significantly more robust optical mismatch effects than the other syntactic violation and non-structural, lexical elements. This mismatch response had a peak latency of 186 ms in the left anterior superior temporal gyrus. In combination with our prior MEG report (Kubota et al. in Neurosci Lett 662:195–204, 2018), the present optical neuroimaging findings show that syntactic marking (unmarked-to-marked) violations of the bare object infinitive against the rule of the mental grammar enhance the signal strength exactly in the same manner seen with MEG scanning, including the peak latency of mismatch activity and the activated area of the brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language and social skill deficits associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) warrant further study. Existing research has focused on the contributions of pragmatic language to social skills, with little attention to other aspects of language. We examined the associations across three language domains (semantics, syntax, and pragmatics) and their relations to parent- and teacher-rated social skills among children with ASD. When parent-reported language skills were considered simultaneously, only semantics significantly predicted children's social skills. For teacher-reported language skills, all three language domains predicted children's social skills, but none made unique contributions above and beyond one another. Further research should consider the impact of social context on language expectations and interventions targeting semantic language on children's development of social skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turner (2018) argues that computer programs must have purposes, that implementation is not a kind of semantics, and that computers might need to understand what they do. I respectfully disagree: Computer programs need not have purposes, implementation is a kind of semantic interpretation, and neither human computers nor computing machines need to understand what they do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to traditional linguistic theories, the construction of complex meanings relies firmly on syntactic structure-building operations. Recently, however, new models have been proposed in which semantics is viewed as being partly autonomous from syntax. In this paper, we discuss some of the developmental implications of syntax-based and autonomous models of semantics. We review event-related brain potential (ERP) studies on semantic processing in infants and toddlers, focusing on experiments reporting modulations of N400 amplitudes using visual or auditory stimuli and different temporal structures of trials. Our review suggests that infants can relate or integrate semantic information from temporally overlapping stimuli across modalities by 6 months of age. The ability to relate or integrate semantic information over time, within and across modalities, emerges by 9 months. The capacity to relate or integrate information from spoken words in sequences and sentences appears by 18 months. We also review behavioral and ERP studies showing that grammatical and syntactic processing skills develop only later, between 18 and 32 months. These results provide preliminary evidence for the availability of some semantic processes prior to the full developmental emergence of syntax: non-syntactic meaning-building operations are available to infants, albeit in restricted ways, months before the abstract machinery of grammar is in place. We discuss this hypothesis in light of research on early language acquisition and human brain development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are syntactic representations shared across languages, and how might that inform the nature of syntactic computations? To investigate these issues, we presented French-English bilinguals with mixed-language word sequences for 200 ms and asked them to report the identity of one word at a post-cued location. The words either formed an interpretable grammatical sequence via shared syntax (e.g., ses feet sont big – where the French words ses and sont translate into his and are, respectively) or an ungrammatical sequence with the same words (e.g., sont feet ses big). Word identification was significantly greater in the grammatical sequences – a bilingual sentence superiority effect. These results not only provide support for shared syntax, but also reveal a fascinating ability of bilinguals to simultaneously connect words from their two languages through these shared syntactic representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response to a recent critique by Cem Bozşahin of the theory of syntactic semantics as it applies to Helen Keller, and some applications of the theory to the philosophy of computer science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is increasingly common for language specifications to describe visual forms (concrete syntax) separately from underlying concepts (abstract syntax). This is typically to enable interchange of visual information between graphical modeling tools, such as positions of nodes and routings of lines. Often overlooked is that separation of visual forms and abstract concepts enables languages to define multiple visual forms for the same underlying concepts and for the same visual form to be used for similar underlying concepts in different languages (many-to-many relationships between concrete and abstract syntax). Visual forms can be adapted to communities using different notations for the same concepts and can be used to integrate communities using the same notation for similar concepts. Models of concrete syntax have been available for some time, but are rarely used to capture these many-to-many relationships with abstract syntax. This paper shows how to model these relationships using concrete graphical syntax expressed in the Diagram Definition standard, examining cases drawn from the Unified Modeling Language and the Business Process Model and Notation. This gives definers of graphical languages a way to specify visual forms for multiple communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language comprehension requires successfully navigating linguistic variability. One hypothesis for how listeners manage variability is that they rapidly update their expectations of likely linguistic events in new contexts. This process, called adaptation, allows listeners to better predict the upcoming linguistic input. In previous work, Fine, Jaeger, Farmer, and Qian (PLoS ONE, 8, e77661, 2013) found evidence for syntactic adaptation. Subjects repeatedly encountered sentences in which a verb was temporarily ambiguous between main verb (MV) and reduced relative clause (RC) interpretations. They found that subjects who had higher levels of exposure to the unexpected RC interpretation of the sentences had an easier time reading the RC sentences but a more difficult time reading the MV sentences. They concluded that syntactic adaptation occurs rapidly in unexpected structures and also results in difficulty with processing the previously expected alternative structures. This article presents two experiments. Experiment 1 was designed as a follow-up to Fine et al.’s study and failed to find evidence of adaptation. A power analysis of Fine et al.’s raw data revealed that a similar study would need double the items and four times the subjects to reach 95% power. In Experiment 2 we designed a close replication of Fine et al.’s experiment using these sample size guidelines. No evidence of rapid syntactic adaptation was found in this experiment. The failure to find evidence of adaptation in both experiments calls into question the robustness of the effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a novel argument for the Matching Analysis of relative clauses. The argument is based on antipronominal contexts in German. Antipronominal contexts are syntactic environments that require lexical DPs and therefore bar pronouns. It is argued that the behavior of relative clauses in antipronominal contexts in German points to two conclusions. First, relative pronouns contain a phonologically invisible NP that is identical to the NP contained in the head noun. Second, the two NPs are not connected via movement. Since only the Matching Analysis takes the two NPs to be base-generated, it is concluded that the Matching Analysis represents the correct structure for relative clauses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines some recent work by Berwick and Chomsky as presented in their book Why Only Us? Language and Evolution (2015). As I understand them, Berwick and Chomsky’s overarching purpose is to explain how human language could have arisen in so short an evolutionary period. After articulating their strategy, I argue that they fall far short of reaching this goal. A co-evolutionary scenario linking the mechanisms that realize the language system, both with one other and with cognitive mechanisms capable of exploiting linguistic expressions, is surely unavoidable. And yet this is precisely what Berwick and Chomsky in effect rule out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide range of studies on language assessment during awake brain surgery is nowadays available. Yet, a consensus on a standardized protocol for intraoperative language mapping is still lacking. More specifically, very limited information is offered about intraoperative assessment of a crucial component of language such as syntax. This review aims at critically analyzing the intraoperative studies investigating the cerebral basis of syntactic processing. A comprehensive query was performed on the literature, returning a total of 18 studies. These papers were analyzed according to two complementary criteria, based on the distinction between morphosyntax and syntax. The first criterion focused on the tasks and stimuli employed intraoperatively. Studies were divided into three different groups: group 1 included those studies that overtly aimed at investigating morphosyntactic processes; group 2 included studies that did not explicitly focus on syntax, yet employed stimuli requiring morphosyntactic processing; and group 3 included studies reporting some generic form of syntactic deficit, although not further investigated. The second criterion focused on the syntactic structures of the sentences assessed intraoperatively, analyzing the canonicity of sentence structure (i.e., canonical versus non-canonical word order). The global picture emerging from our analysis indicates that what was investigated in the intraoperative literature is morphosyntactic processing, rather than pure syntax. The study of the neurobiology of syntax during awake surgery seems thus to be still at an early stage, in need of systematic, linguistically grounded investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new books- Creating Language: Integrating Evolution, Acquisition, and Processing by Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater, and Why Only Us: Language and Evolution by Robert C. Berwick and Noam Chomsky-present a good opportunity to assess the state of the debate about whether or not language was made possible by language-specific adaptations for syntax. Berwick and Chomsky argue yes: language was made possible by a single change to the computation Merge. Christiansen and Chater argue no: our syntactic abilities developed on the back of natural selection for general-purpose sequence learning mechanisms. While Christiansen and Chater's book testifies to impressive developments in constructivist approaches to language development, it's not obvious that it has the resources to explain the hierarchical nature of syntactic binding. Despite this, the views have much in common. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of studies have shown a relationship between comprehending transitive sentences and spatial processing (e.g., Chatterjee, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(2), 55-61, 2001), in which there is an advantage for responding to images that depict the agent of an action to the left of the patient. Boiteau and Almor ( Cognitive Science, 2016) demonstrated that a similar effect is found for pure linguistic information, such that after reading a sentence, identifying a word that had appeared earlier as the agent is faster on the left than on the right, but only for left-hand responses. In this study, we examined the role of lateralized manual motor processes in this effect and found that such spatial effects occur even when only the responses, but not the stimuli, have a spatial dimension. In support of the specific role of manual motor processes, we found a response-space effect with manual but not with pedal responses. Our results support an effector-specific (as opposed to an effector-general) hypothesis: Manual responses showed spatial effects compatible with those in previous research, whereas pedal responses did not. This is consistent with theoretical and empirical work arguing that the hands are generally involved with, and perhaps more sensitive to, linguistic information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined delays in syntax and morphology, and vocabulary, in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children ages 4-6 years with ASD ( n = 21) and typical development ( n = 21), matched on nonverbal mental age, completed five language tasks. The ASD group had significant delays in both syntax and morphology, and vocabulary measures, with significant within-group heterogeneity; furthermore, syntactic and morphological measures were impaired even for subgroups matched on vocabulary. Children in the ASD group without early language delay showed syntactic and morphological impairment, with intact performance on vocabulary and sentence repetition. Findings indicate that syntactic and morphological impairments are a significant concern for high-functioning children with ASD, and may be overlooked if language evaluation focuses exclusively on vocabulary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of language evolution, and human cognitive evolution more generally, has often been ridiculed as unscientific, but in fact it differs little from many other disciplines that investigate past events, such as geology or cosmology. Well-crafted models of language evolution make numerous testable hypotheses, and if the principles of strong inference (simultaneous testing of multiple plausible hypotheses) are adopted, there is an increasing amount of relevant data allowing empirical evaluation of such models. The articles in this special issue provide a concise overview of current models of language evolution, emphasizing the testable predictions that they make, along with overviews of the many sources of data available to test them (emphasizing comparative, neural, and genetic data). The key challenge facing the study of language evolution is not a lack of data, but rather a weak commitment to hypothesis-testing approaches and strong inference, exacerbated by the broad and highly interdisciplinary nature of the relevant data. This introduction offers an overview of the field, and a summary of what needed to evolve to provide our species with language-ready brains. It then briefly discusses different contemporary models of language evolution, followed by an overview of different sources of data to test these models. I conclude with my own multistage model of how different components of language could have evolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A metalanguage of normal forms of knowledge and its text and graphic descriptions are presented. Numerous linguistic examples including the syntax of a subset of simple English sentences and a metalanguage of Extended Backus-Naur Form are formally described in text and graphic forms. The conclusion is made that the metalanguage presented can be compared favorably with human capabilities of knowledge representation and use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cinque (Linguist Inq 36(3):315-332, 2005; Universals of language today. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 165-184, 2009; Functional structure from top to toe. Vol. 9 of The cartography of syntactic structures. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 232-265, 2014a) observes that there is an asymmetry in the possible ordering of dependents of a lexical head before versus after the head. A reflection on some of the concepts needed to develop Cinque's ideas into a theory of neutral word order reveals that dependents need to be treated separately by class. The resulting system is applied to the problem of word order in the Germanic verb cluster. It is shown that there is an extremely close match between theoretically derived expectations for clusters made up of auxiliaries, modals, causative 'let', a main verb, and verbal particles. The facts point to the action of Cinque's fundamental left-right asymmetry in language in the realm of the verb cluster. At the same time, not all verb clusters fall under Cinque's generalization, which, therefore, argues against treating all cases of restructuring uniformly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study problems of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) with morphosyntax, we investigated twenty high-functioning Greek-speaking children (mean age: 6;11) and twenty age- and language-matched typically developing children on environments that allow or forbid object clitics or their corresponding noun phrase. Children with ASD fell behind typically developing children in comprehending and producing simple clitics and producing noun phrases in focus structures. The two groups performed similarly in comprehending and producing clitics in clitic left dislocation and in producing noun phrases in non-focus structures. We argue that children with ASD have difficulties at the interface of (morpho)syntax with pragmatics and prosody, namely, distinguishing a discourse prominent element, and considering intonation relevant for a particular interpretation that excludes clitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The combination of meaning-bearing units (e.g., words) into higher-order structures (e.g., compound words and phrases) is integral to human language. Despite this central role of syntax in language, little is known about its evolutionary progression. Comparative data using animal communication systems offer potential insights, but only a handful of species have been identified to combine meaningful calls together into larger signals. We investigated a candidate for syntax-like structure in the highly social chestnut-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus ruficeps). Using a combination of behavioral observations, acoustic analyses, and playback experiments, we test whether the form and function of maternal contact calls is modified by combining the core “piping” elements of such calls with at least one other call element or call. Results from the acoustic analyses (236 analysed calls from 10 individuals) suggested that piping call elements can be flexibly initiated with either “peow” elements from middle-distance contact calls or adult “begging” calls to form “peow-pipe” and “beg-pipe” calls. Behavioral responses to playbacks (20 trials to 7 groups) of natural peow-pipe and beg-pipe calls were comparable to those of artificially generated versions of each call using peow elements and begging calls from other contexts. Furthermore, responses to playbacks (34 trials to 7 groups) of the three forms of maternal contact calls (piping alone, peow-pipe, beg-pipe) differed. Together these data suggest that meaning encoded in piping calls is modified by combining such calls with begging calls or peow elements used in other contexts and so provide rare empirical evidence for syntactic-like structuring in a nonhuman animal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the great unknowns in language evolution is the transition from unstructured sign combination to grammatical structure. This paper investigates the central — while hitherto overlooked — role of functor–argument metaphor. This type of metaphor pervades modern language, but is absent in animal communication. It arises from the semantic clash between the default meanings of terms. Functor–argument metaphor became logically possible in protolanguage once sufficient vocabulary and basic compositionality arose, allowing for novel combinations of terms. For example, the verb to hide, a functor, could be combined not only with a concrete, spatial entity like food as its argument, but also with an abstract, non-spatial one like anger. Through this clash, to hide is reinterpreted as a metaphorical action. Functor–argument metaphor requires the possibility of term combinability and the existence of compositionality. At the same time, it transcends compositionality, forcing a non-literal interpretation. We argue that functor–argument metaphor led the development of protolanguage into fully-fledged language in multiple ways. Not only did it expand expressiveness, but it drove the development of syntax including the conventionalization and fixation of word order, and the development of demonstratives. Thus, functor–argument metaphor fills in multiple gaps in the trajectory from a protolanguage, with only some terms and simple term combinations, to the elaborate grammatical structures of fully-fledged human languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a paper entitled A Semantical Version of the Problem of Transcendental Idealism, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz gives a very impressive analysis of transcendental idealism. He approaches the matter using the tools of formal semantics developed by Alfred Tarski and draws a rather surprising conclusion. According to Ajdukiewicz, the idealist position, claiming that the world around us is ontologically dependent on our cognitive activity can be shown to be implausible on purely logical grounds. It is worth taking a closer look at this insightful argument, since Ajdukiewicz's analysis, if sound, has a relevance reaching far beyond purely historical questions concerning the right interpretation and proper assessment of past idealist doctrines. These days various species of (mostly local) idealism are thriving under such labels as 'anti realism' or 'pragmatism'. Ajdukiewicz's venerable paper goes to the very core of many contemporary metaphysical discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rules governing bird song sequences vary considerably across the avian phylogeny, and modifications to these rules represent one of the many ways in which bird song varies interspecifically. Cassin's Vireo ( Vireo cassinii) is one species that shows a highly structured syntax, with clearly non-random patterns of sequential organization in their songs. Here I present a description of Cassin's Vireo song sequences from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California and employ network analysis to quantify transition patterns within the songs. Repertoire sizes varied between 44 and 60 phrase types per bird for the 13 birds analyzed here. The repertoire was subdivided into 'themes' containing between two and seven phrase types. The birds sang the phrase types in a given theme for a time before eventually introducing a new theme; in this manner the repertoire was revealed relatively slowly over time. Theme composition within a bird's repertoire did not change within or between singing bouts throughout the season. The tendency to sing in themes was corroborated by network analysis, which revealed small-world structure in the songs. Phrase types were widely shared within the population. I discuss these findings as they compare with the singing styles of other species, both closely and distantly related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous eye-tracking work has yielded inconsistent evidence regarding whether readers spend more or less time encoding focused information compared with information that is not focused. We report the results of an eye-tracking experiment that used syntactic structure to manipulate whether a target word was linguistically defocused, neutral, or focused, while controlling for possible oculomotor differences across conditions. As the structure of the sentence made the target word increasingly more focused, reading times systematically increased. We propose that the longer reading times for linguistically focused words reflect deeper encoding, which explains previous findings showing that readers have better subsequent memory for focused versus defocused information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that recognition of complex acoustic signals, such as bird song, is dependent upon the temporal ordering of signal units or syntax. Much less is known about functionally analogous visual displays. The jacky dragon ( Amphibolurus muricatus) is a native Australian agamid lizard with a highly stereotyped visual display made up of three discrete motor patterns. We conducted a playback experiment using high-resolution computer animations of conspecifics to test the importance of temporal order for signal efficacy. Lizards were shown three different life-sized simulated animations of conspecific differing in their skin texture and morphology signatures ranging from highly natural to abnormal. We evaluated signal recognition and assessed the relative importance of syntax and morphology. Our results showed that signal recognition is highly sensitive to syntax and this largely determines the observers' behavioural responses. Stimuli with abnormal texture and shape were highly effective, as long as the natural order of motor patterns was preserved. Display recognition in jacky lizards hence depends upon syntax in just the same way as temporally constrained signals in other modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between structural processing in music and language has received increasing interest in the past several years, spurred by the influential Shared Syntactic Integration Resource Hypothesis (SSIRH; Patel, Nature Neuroscience, 6, 674-681, ). According to this resource-sharing framework, music and language rely on separable syntactic representations but recruit shared cognitive resources to integrate these representations into evolving structures. The SSIRH is supported by findings of interactions between structural manipulations in music and language. However, other recent evidence suggests that such interactions also can arise with nonstructural manipulations, and some recent neuroimaging studies report largely nonoverlapping neural regions involved in processing musical and linguistic structure. These conflicting results raise the question of exactly what shared (and distinct) resources underlie musical and linguistic structural processing. This paper suggests that one shared resource is prefrontal cortical mechanisms of cognitive control, which are recruited to detect and resolve conflict that occurs when expectations are violated and interpretations must be revised. By this account, musical processing involves not just the incremental processing and integration of musical elements as they occur, but also the incremental generation of musical predictions and expectations, which must sometimes be overridden and revised in light of evolving musical input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core of the generative power of human languages lies in our ability to combine acoustic units under specific rules into structurally complex and semantically rich utterances. While various animal species concatenate acoustic units into structurally elaborate vocal sequences, such compound calls do not appear to be compositional as their information content cannot be derived from the information content of each of its components. As such, animal compound calls are said to constitute a form of phonological syntax, as in the construction of words in human language, whereas evidence for rudimentary forms of lexical syntax, analogous to the construction of sentences out of words, is scarce. In a previous study, we demonstrated that the repertoire of close-distance calls of mountain and western gorillas consists of acoustic units that are either used singularly or non-randomly combined. Here, we investigate whether this syntactic variation provides indications for lexical or phonological syntax. Specifically, we examined the differences between the potential information content of compound calls and their components used singularly through investigating the contexts in which they are used. We found that the gorillas emitted compound calls in contexts similar to some but not all components, but also in a context rarely found for any of their components. As such, the investigated compound calls did not appear to be compositional as their information content cannot be derived from the information content of each of their components. Our results suggest that combining acoustic units into compound vocalizations by gorillas constitutes a form of phonological syntax, which may enable them to increase the number of messages that can be transmitted by an otherwise small repertoire of acoustic units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstracting syntactic rules is critical to human language learning. It is debated whether this ability, already present in young infants, is human- and language specific or can also be found in non-human animals, indicating it may arise from more general cognitive mechanisms. Current studies are often ambiguous and few have directly compared rule learning by humans and non-human animals. In a series of discrimination experiments, we presented zebra finches and human adults with comparable training and tests with the same artificial stimuli consisting of XYX and XXY structures, in which X and Y were zebra finch song elements. Zebra finches readily discriminated the training stimuli. Some birds also discriminated novel stimuli when these were composed of familiar element types, but none of the birds generalized the discrimination to novel element types. We conclude that zebra finches show evidence of simple rule abstraction related to positional learning, suggesting stimulus-bound generalization, but found no evidence for a more abstract rule generalization. This differed from the human adults, who categorized novel stimuli consisting of novel element types into different groups according to their structure. The limited abilities for rule abstraction in zebra finches may indicate what the precursors of more complex abstraction as found in humans may have been like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work studies the usefulness of syntactic information in the context of automatic dialogue act recognition in Czech. Several pieces of evidence are presented in this work that support our claim that syntax might bring valuable information for dialogue act recognition. In particular, a parallel is drawn with the related domain of automatic punctuation generation and a set of syntactic features derived from a deep parse tree is further proposed and successfully used in a Czech dialogue act recognition system based on conditional random fields. We finally discuss the possible reasons why so few works have exploited this type of information before and propose future research directions to further progress in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In less than three decades, the concept 'cerebellar neurocognition' has evolved from a mere afterthought to an entirely new and multifaceted area of neuroscientific research. A close interplay between three main strands of contemporary neuroscience induced a substantial modification of the traditional view of the cerebellum as a mere coordinator of autonomic and somatic motor functions. Indeed, the wealth of current evidence derived from detailed neuroanatomical investigations, functional neuroimaging studies with healthy subjects and patients and in-depth neuropsychological assessment of patients with cerebellar disorders shows that the cerebellum has a cardinal role to play in affective regulation, cognitive processing, and linguistic function. Although considerable progress has been made in models of cerebellar function, controversy remains regarding the exact role of the 'linguistic cerebellum' in a broad variety of nonmotor language processes. This consensus paper brings together a range of different viewpoints and opinions regarding the contribution of the cerebellum to language function. Recent developments and insights in the nonmotor modulatory role of the cerebellum in language and some related disorders will be discussed. The role of the cerebellum in speech and language perception, in motor speech planning including apraxia of speech, in verbal working memory, in phonological and semantic verbal fluency, in syntax processing, in the dynamics of language production, in reading and in writing will be addressed. In addition, the functional topography of the linguistic cerebellum and the contribution of the deep nuclei to linguistic function will be briefly discussed. As such, a framework for debate and discussion will be offered in this consensus paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading disability in children with dyslexia has been proposed to reflect impairment in auditory timing perception. We investigated one aspect of timing perception- temporal grouping-as present in prosodic phrase boundaries of natural speech, in age-matched groups of children, ages 6-8 years, with and without dyslexia. Prosodic phrase boundaries are characterized by temporal grouping of functionally related speech elements and can facilitate syntactic processing of speech. For example, temporary syntactic ambiguities, such as early-closure structures, are processed faster when prosodic phrase boundaries are present. We examined children's prosodic facilitation by measuring their efficiency of sentence processing for temporary syntactic ambiguities spoken with (facilitating) versus without (neutral) prosodic phrase boundaries. Both groups of children benefited similarly from prosodic facilitation, displaying faster reaction times in facilitating compared to neutral prosody. These findings indicate that the use of prosodic phrase boundaries for speech processing is not impaired in children with dyslexia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical descriptions of vocal behaviour are important for understanding avian biology. In this study, we provide the first detailed analysis of the vocal behaviour of the Brown-throated Wren ( Troglodytes brunneicollis), a neotropical songbird found in oak forests in the highlands of Mexico and the southwestern United States. We quantify the fine structural characteristics of the song, and describe the size and structure of the song repertoire. Further, we describe diel variation, analyze song-sharing patterns among neighbors, and explore whether this species uses syntactical rules for creating their songs. Our analyses reveal that Brown-throated Wrens have complex songs and simple calls. They sing with eventual variety, repeating songs many times before switching to a new song type. Males combine syllables into phrases to create songs. We show that song repertoire size is not fixed; birds recombine their syllables to produce highly variable song types. Brown-throated Wrens sing with high vocal output after sunrise and song activity declines throughout the morning. Song sharing shows no variation with distance among our sampled individuals. We divide the syllables in Brown-throated Wren songs into 13 categories; birds sing some syllables more frequently than others, and some syllables are more likely to be found at the beginning, middle, or end of the song. Transitions between syllable categories deviate significantly from random chance, and most males analyzed follow similar patterns of syllable transitions, revealing syntactical structure. This research, which provides the first empirical study of Brown-throated Wren song, expands our knowledge of the behaviour of this poorly-studied taxon, and contributes insight into the organization and composition of song in tropical birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to determine the feasibility of using self-paced reading methods to study deaf readers and to assess how deaf readers respond to two syntactic manipulations. Three groups of participants read the test sentences: deaf readers, hearing monolingual English readers, and hearing bilingual readers whose second language was English. In Experiment 1, the participants read sentences containing subject-relative or object-relative clauses. The test sentences contained semantic information that would influence online processing outcomes (Traxler, Morris, & Seely Journal of Memory and Language 47: 69-90, ; Traxler, Williams, Blozis, & Morris Journal of Memory and Language 53: 204-224, ). All of the participant groups had greater difficulty processing sentences containing object-relative clauses. This difficulty was reduced when helpful semantic cues were present. In Experiment 2, participants read active-voice and passive-voice sentences. The sentences were processed similarly by all three groups. Comprehension accuracy was higher in hearing readers than in deaf readers. Within deaf readers, native signers read the sentences faster and comprehended them to a higher degree than did nonnative signers. These results indicate that self-paced reading is a useful method for studying sentence interpretation among deaf readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nine low-functioning children with profound expressive language impairment and autism were studied in terms of their responsiveness to a computer-based learning program designed to assess syntactic awareness. The children learned to touch words on a screen in the correct sequence in order to see a corresponding animation, such as 'monkey flies'. The game progressed in levels from 2 to 4 word sequences, contingent upon success at each stage. Although performance was highly variable across participants, a detailed review of their learning profiles suggested that no child lacked syntactic awareness and that elementary syntactic control in a non-speech domain was superior to that manifest in their spoken language. The reasons for production failures at the level of speech in children with autism are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hallmark of the human language faculty is the use of syntactic rules. The natural vocalizations of animals are syntactically simple, but several studies indicate that animals can detect and discriminate more complex structures in acoustic stimuli. However, how they discriminate such structures is often not clear. Using an artificial grammar learning paradigm, zebra finches were tested in a Go/No-go experiment for their ability to distinguish structurally different three-element sound sequences. In Experiment 1, zebra finches learned to discriminate ABA and BAB from ABB, AAB, BBA, and ABB sequences. Tests with probe sounds consisting of four elements suggested that the discrimination was based on attending to the presence or absence of repeated A- and B-elements. One bird generalized the discrimination to a new element type. In Experiment 2, we continued the training by adding four-element songs following a 'first and last identical versus different' rule that could not be solved by attending to repetitions. Only two out of five birds learned the overall discrimination. Testing with novel probes demonstrated that discrimination was not based on using the 'first and last identical' rule, but on attending to the presence or absence of the individual training stimuli. The two birds differed in the strategies used. Our results thus demonstrate only a limited degree of abstract rule learning but highlight the need for extensive and critical probe testing to examine the rules that animals (and humans) use to solve artificial grammar learning tasks. They also underline that rule learning strategies may differ between individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more researchers are examining grammar acquisition from theoretical perspectives that treat it as an emergent phenomenon. In this essay, I argue that a robustly developmental perspective provides a potential explanation for some of the well-known crosslinguistic features of early child language: the process of acquisition is shaped in part by the developmental constraints embodied in von Baer's law of development. An established model of development, the Developmental Lock, captures and elucidates the probabilistic generalizations at the heart of von Baer's law. When this model is applied to the acquisition of grammar, it predicts that grammatical achievements that are more generatively entrenched will emerge earlier in development and will be more developmentally resilient than those that are less generatively entrenched. I show that the first prediction is supported by a wealth of psycholinguistic evidence involving typically developing children and that the second prediction is supported by numerous studies involving both children who receive deficient linguistic input and children who experience various language impairments. The success of this model demonstrates the analytic potential of a developmental approach to the study of language acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex acoustic signals in many animal species are characterized by a syntax that governs how different notes are combined, but the importance of syntax to the communicative function of signals is not well understood. Mated pairs of yellow-naped amazons, Amazona auropalliata, produce coordinated vocal duets that are used for territory maintenance and defense. These duets follow rules that specify the ordering of notes within duets, such as a strict alternation of sex-specific notes and a defined progression of note types through each duet. These syntactical rules may function to define sex-specific roles, improve coordination, and allow individuals to combine calls into meaningful sequences. As a first step toward understanding the functional significance of syntax, we conducted two separate audio playback experiments in which we presented nesting pairs with normal duets and duets with broken syntax (i.e., one of the syntactic rules was broken). In Experiment One, we reversed the order of female and male notes within note pairs while retaining the typical progression of note types through a duet. In Experiment Two we reversed the order of note types across a whole duet while retaining the typical female-male ordering within note pairs. We hypothesized that duets with broken syntax would be less-effective signals than duets with normal syntax and predicted that pairs would respond less to broken syntax than to normal duets. Contrary to predictions, we did not observe differences in response between treatments for any variables except latency to approach the speaker. After we combined data across experiments post hoc, we observed longer latencies to approach the speakers after playbacks of broken syntax duets, suggesting that pairs could differentiate between playbacks. These responses suggest that breaking one rule of duet syntax at a time does not result in detectable loss of signal efficacy in the context of territorial intrusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The style of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows arises from an alternative vision and choice of values characteristic of romance. Romance seeks fulfillment beyond the consequences of everyday relationships and the constrictions of ordinary life. Causal relationships give way to lists of independent items, unmotivated outcomes, and fulfilled wishes. Typical syntax in The Wind in the Willows includes compound listing of elements: instead of subordinating the parts to each other, both sentence style and larger organization deemphasize causality, giving an additive and coordinate nature to the work. Grahame's style is an appropriate vehicle for a 'new life' that is inherently rather than conditionally worthwhile. Characters acknowledge each other as ends. Such a style is a natural outcome of the worldview of romance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five groups of children defined by presence or absence of syntactic deficits and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) took vocabulary tests and provided sentences, definitions, and word associations. Children with ASD who were free of syntactic deficits demonstrated age-appropriate word knowledge. Children with ASD plus concomitant syntactic language impairments (ASDLI) performed similarly to peers with specific language impairment (SLI) and both demonstrated sparse lexicons characterized by partial word knowledge and immature knowledge of word-to-word relationships. This behavioral overlap speaks to the robustness of the syntax-lexicon interface and points to a similarity in the ASDLI and SLI phenotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]